


Mary And The Dead

by The Sign of Tea (NoPlastic)



Series: Tumblr ficlets - Johnlockary [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Body Horror, Fluff, Halloween, Horror, Humor, Multi, Prompt Fic, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 15:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5095322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoPlastic/pseuds/The%20Sign%20of%20Tea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Halloween, and Mary watches horror movies at home... alone?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mary And The Dead

**Author's Note:**

> Halloween prompt: "The three of them try to watch a scary movie together."

_The Walking Dead_ was a ridiculous series. An apocalyptic setting, people turning into zombies? As if that was anything new. Between mouthfuls of popcorn, Mary kept muttering to herself about how boring and foreseeable it was. She kept watching, of course, her eyes practically glued to the screen, but she wasn’t at all interested! And definitely not the least bit scared.

Only once, when a particularly horrible zombie appeared, she jumped a little. That was all. After a while, her eyes started to wander away from the screen, too. But that was because there was nothing exciting happening, and _not_ because she had to check now and then if there wasn’t a zombie lurking in the corner.

During one of the most terrifying scenes of the second episode, she flinched a little. Said “flinching” was actually a jump from the sofa. She jumped again when she looked through the open door into the kitchen, as it happened, and suddenly saw John and Sherlock standing there. She squealed in an absolutely embarrassing manner, and nearly dropped her popcorn.

“What are you two doing here?”

Fortunately her voice was halfway under control again when she asked.

“Didn’t you have a meeting with Lestrade scheduled?”

Neither of the two replied. They only stared back at her. Something was wrong with them. They looked… dead. 

Sherlock was the first to move. With uncoordinated steps he came stumbling towards Mary, reaching out as if he was eager to grab her. From his half-opened mouth came a hungry growl. 

Unable to process what was going on, Mary ventured a hopeful glance at her husband.

“H-Help?”

John didn’t reply. He didn’t even blink. His face was a mask, only his upper lip curled up slightly, baring his teeth. With a throaty groan, he began to move, slowly limping after Sherlock. 

Frozen in shock, Mary remained in her position in front of the sofa. She wanted to run, but she seemed to have lost control over her legs. She wanted to scream, but her voice wouldn’t obey.

Sherlock was coming closer, but Mary didn’t even pay attention to him, she focused completely on John. His mouth was closed now, a thin line, his lips a blueish colour. There was no life in his eyes. Mary noticed some dirt under his fingernails, and a faint smell of decay.

“I’m – No, John…” she stuttered. 

John – or the creature that had once been John – took another step. He snarled. He reached for her with a crooked claw.  Fingernails dugs into her neck – Sherlock’s. She screamed…

…and the chokehold turned into a gentle caress. 

“Trick or treat.” Sherlock chuckled, his breath warm on her neck, followed by a kiss. “Don’t worry. It’s just us.”

“I’m sorry, love,” John said – in his normal voice, with a normal, lively expression and an apologetic grin on his face. He held out his arms, and made a small noise of amusement and pity as Mary ran to him and embraced him like a man thought dead.

“Did we scare you?” he asked after kissing her cheek.

“Oh, you bastards!” Mary let out a nervous giggle, and slapped John playfully in the face. She turned around with a threatening glare towards Sherlock, who stood next her and John and howled with laughter.

“It’s Halloween, Mary,” Sherlock managed to say while wiping tears of laughter from his cheeks. “A harmless prank, and you totally fell for it. We knew you were watching that zombie movie, so…”

“So you just had to try and scare the hell out of me?”

“…so we had to conduct an experiment,” Sherlock finished his sentence with stand-offish emphasis, the glint of mischievous humour still in his eyes. “I needed to see how you would react to an unexpected threat. For future cases. It’s important.”

“Important, huh.”

Mary rolled her eyes, and Sherlock’s scientist façade gave way to a wide grin. She picked up the old Union Jack pillow from the couch, and flung it at him with full force. She cheered with triumph as it hit him right in the face.

“We booked a table at that fancy new Italian restaurant,” John said as Sherlock had fallen silent after Mary’s pillow attack. 

“What, really?” 

Immediately, she felt in a better and much more forgiving mood. The restaurant was a rather expensive place John knew she wanted to go, but he’d acted as if he wasn’t interested, so this came as a pleasant surprise.

“What have I done to deserve that?”

“You’ve survived the zombie apocalypse,” Sherlock chimed in, and pulled her in for another quick hug as he had her attention again. 

“And because we love you,” he whispered into her ear. “That’s what John told me to say.”

“Alright.” Mary giggled and let go of him. “I love you, too.”

“So, if you still feel like trying some Italian after all that popcorn,” John said. “Just change into some decent clothes, and we’ll go.” 

“Oh, that’s lovely.” Mary smiled brightly at the men, and headed towards the bedroom to get dressed. 

However, one thing was still strange. Standing in the bedroom door, she turned back around and gave them a quizzical look.

“Sherlock, have you been harpooning dead pigs again?”

Sherlock furrowed his brow.

“No, I haven’t. Why?”

“There’s a smell of decay that I can’t get rid of, and I’m pretty sure it’s coming from you two.”

“I haven’t done anything of that sort. You must be imagining it, Mary. Your senses can be affected that way under the influence of the stress that we just exposed you to. Quite interesting, actually. I might put this down in one of my spreadsheets…”

“But I’m sure it’s there,” Mary protested. “The smell. Do you not notice it, John?”

John shrugged and shook his head. As he did so, his left eye rolled out of its socket and dropped to the floor.

“Oh,” he uttered, and bent down to pick it up. “Sorry. That… happens, occasionally.”

He used the arm of his shirt to wipe some dust from the eyeball before putting it back in.

“No need to worry,” he said when he noticed Mary’s expression, and held out his hands in a gesture that was probably supposed to be calming. 

Only now she noticed that his index fingers were missing, and the tip of his left ring finger was rotten down to the bone.

“You better hurry up, Mary! Our meals won’t wait forever.”


End file.
